Strange heading for an Arena League review but it will become clear.
Saturday night saw the first round of the Arena League for 2015. This is the national club competition and in a way swimming's version of football's FA cup and league system combined. Despite only have around 120 competitive members to select from, Long Eaton SC put out 2 competitive teams each year. The A team in the West Midlands Premier League and the B team in Division 3 alongside a lot of other clubs' A teams. The teams from each division are drawn into galas and compete against each other over 50 events, claiming 6 points for a win, down to one for 6th and 0 for a dq. The points are totaled at the end of the gala and the team with the most points wins. A further draw is made for round 2 and then the top 2 clubs from the top 3 galas go into the final in round 3 with the winners of the final going into a National Final between all the Divisions.
Saturday night saw 2 under strength Long Eaton teams shine. The A team, missing some key swimmers, battled it out in a very even draw to finally finish second by only 7 points, whilst the B team finished 4th, having been affected by the A teams needs. What was apparent, and what I am so proud of, was the level of swimming from both teams. The spirit, togetherness, skill level, determination, heart, desire and over all professionalism was on show for all to see and in the 5 years since I took over, the club has become unrecognizable from its former self in the most positive way. The steps taken by swimmers from the home programme, and those that train at DX, have been massive and can only lead to good things. The performance of the A team was so impressive that I didn't get to sleep till after half 3 on Sunday morning as I was buzzing about it. Not good when I was up at 7 to help all day with our open meet.
Then came they cherry on the cake, the B team standing tall and performing way beyond what was expected. Equalling the A team in every way and gaining massive amounts of respect from the other clubs and parents present judging by the reports I received on Sunday. A special mention is needed for the "13" year old boys, all of which were 12 or under, and were giving away feet in height to their opponents, but managed to stand tall and show amazing team spirit, giving it their everything for the team.
I don't normally gush as publicly as I have after the weekend; it's not in my nature as I always want more and do believe that pride comes before a fall. It is a failing of mine in some ways as we should shout about what an amazing club we have, the best in the Region in my opinion, certainly in terms of numbers of high level swimmers produced compared to total members, no one can compare with us. Maybe there will be a fall from all the pride that I am feeling now but it won't be because of anything the swimmers do if they keep performing in the manner they did on Saturday night. It's night like this that makes it all worthwhile, so please keep it up, keep developing and working smart with high levels of skill.
